spring 2017 Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield poverty update We saw dedicated service to the community, but there was an underlying anxiety

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1 Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield spring 2017 poverty update We saw dedicated service to the community, but there was an underlying anxiety

2 sheffield poverty update spring 2017 Pilgrimage in Darnall Our latest annual Pilgrimage found reasons for hope but also anxiety. David Price reports. On 15 October, in our eighth Church Action on Poverty Pilgrimage, 40 people walked round Darnall an ethnically mixed area, with six mosques and eight Christian churches of various denominations. Once the centre of a vibrant steel industry, it now figures highly in poverty indices, but still has many good shops and small factories. We started and finished at Church of Christ, Darnall, once the church of the famous Communist priest, Alan Ecclestone, now attractively rebuilt and a local ecumenical project. It is a busy place, with English classes, coffee mornings and lunch clubs. Nearby a former Working Men s Club, now Darnall Community Centre, was being enthusiastically upgraded by men provided by South Yorkshire Community Rehabilitation Company (formerly Probation Service). We walked through High Hazels Park to a Community Allotment, designed to encourage local people to enjoy fresh air and horticultural pursuits. Charmingly eccentric, it had a mud kitchen for the children. Living Waters Christian Fellowship had a food bank, initially mainly for single people but now families. Some food is donated by local people one man donated two trolley-loads of food. These excellent projects were End Hunger UK is a national campaign launched in October 2016 by Church Action on Poverty, the Trussell Trust and many other charities. Its vision is 'to live in a country where everyone has access to good food and no one goes to bed hungry'. It began by promoting 'Big Conversations' about UK hunger, using plates for messages about hunger. It is now organising training events to equip volunteers to meet with MPs across the country. The long-term goal is win a political consensus for national action to eliminate hunger. More information is at SHEFFIELD small in scale and their funding was precarious At St Alban s Church (sister church to Church of Christ) we had the Sheffield launch of the End Hunger campaign. We then had lunch and heard about its valuable Family Development Project, which supports local families. For example, last summer it arranged for 97 families to have trips to the seaside. The project depends heavily on volunteers. Its able organiser is part-time owing to funding shortages. Our last stop was Galeed House a Christian project, with 31 volunteers, for outreach to Muslims, including English classes, sewing classes and youth clubs. We saw plenty of dedicated service to the community, but there was an underlying anxiety. These excellent projects were small in scale and their funding was precarious. The voluntary sector has lost much of its funding in recent years and what little is available tends not to go to valuable small charities of the kind we saw, which are built on local community commitment.

3 3 How can we listen better? Our service for Church Action on Poverty Sunday this year picked up on the Church of the Poor theme being explored by Church Action on Poverty nationally. St Marie s Roman Catholic Cathedral hosted our service on 26 February this year. We were welcomed by the Dean, Fr Chris Posluszny, and by our chair, Nick Waterfield, and the service was led by Fr Shaun Smith. The preacher this year was the new Director of the Urban Theology Union, Rev Keith Hebden. Thanks are due to Briony Broome, who led the intercessions, to David Price, who played the piano, and to Maryke Turvey, who read the gospel. Here we share the text of the challenging address which Keith Hebden gave following the reading of the story of the Transfiguration: Poor is not a term that people use in the UK to self-describe. It is used to describe someone else The story of Jesus transfiguration underlines and highlights for us the vitality of the legends of Moses and Elijah for Jesus disciples. They lived and breathed the heroes of the Bible, and looked for signs that God might do again what God did through these giants of faith. This is why we see glimpses of both in the Gospels, allusions that sometimes are so subtle that they might pass us by completely. We could hardly say that about the story of the Transfiguration in Matthew s gospel. Like Moses, Jesus climbs a mountain to receive God s word; instead of Aaron, he takes with him two of his disciples. The presence of God is revealed to Jesus, just as it was to Moses, and instead of a brightly shining face like Moses experienced in the tent of God s presence, Jesus glows with God s glory from head to foot. The place where tradition tells us this event took place is Mount Hebron. Mount Hebron is now home to a religious community that takes care of people who are on the margins of society and helps them heal through faith and by tending the beautiful grounds. It seems appropriate that Mount Hebron is still a place of transfiguration. This year our theme is the transfiguration of the Church into a Church of the Poor instead of for them. It makes the vital point that it is not enough for the Church to be alongside but other than those who are struggling the most. The phrase the poor is all over the Old Testament, and was picked up and brought to our attention by Liberation theologians in Latin America. Both of those contexts have a greater sense of the collective than ours, and the term was a self-chosen one, in the latter at least. But this presents us in the UK with a problem. In her research into poverty in Britain, Ruth Lister has discovered over and again that poor is not a term that people use here to self-describe. There is not agency in this word. It is something that is used to describe someone else. The power of many words in liberation theology is in their self-description. The so-calleduntouchables rejected Gandhi s harijan and chose dalit. Terms like Black, Gay, Queer are all terms that are chosen as sounds of protest and self-agency. In the UK this is not true of the phrase the poor. If the Church is to be transfigured as a Church of the poor then it needs to ditch that term altogether. What term shall we use? is not yet the question. How can we listen in a way that invites self-agency from those we mean? That is the question.

4 sheffield poverty update spring 2017 who cares for the carers? Sara Millard reports on the Civic Breakfast we held on 9 March, on the theme of challenges facing unpaid carers in Sheffield. The Civic Breakfast was held at Sheffield Jesus Centre and we welcomed faith leaders, local councillors and colleagues from across health and social care and frontline services. The Lord Mayor of Sheffield, Councillor Denise Fox, opened our discussions and spoke movingly about her own experience as a carer. Celia Robinson CEO of Sheffield Carers Centre told us that there are 60,000 carers in the city, with an increasing number of over-85s caring for partners, children, or friends. Their greatest burden is isolation they can t be spontaneous about any activity in their own life and then the costs of heating, diet and transport are a constant worry. Their working life, and any opportunities for training, may be disrupted or even given up, as their responsibilities mean they have no flexibility around these matters. Carers have some rights if their role is more than 35 hours per week, but it is complicated to prove the criteria needed to be eligible for assistance. Sara Gowen, CEO of Sheffield Young Carers, informed us that 7,000 of that number are aged 12 years and upwards (although some are as young as 5), which is approximately two children in every classroom. Many view their role as just helping a member of their family, but with 1 in 12 caring for more than 15 hours per week, and 1 in 20 missing some schooling, the result is that they have a lower attainment at GCSE level and earn approximately 5,000 less than the average wage when they find work.

5 How can they be helped? Many say that they would welcome interest by their GP in their role, and concern about them too. Colleges can give training in recovery principles, and Sheffield City Council is responding by working with the Carers Centre to develop new services and acknowledging the value of caring. A whole school assembly can be used to identify some young carers, there is art therapy in primary schools, and an improved strategy of support is being developed. We heard from two carers amongst those who had been invited: one who is normally cared-for, but there has been a sudden role-reversal, which means that she and her child now care for her husband, and a second cares for her (older) spouse and her mother. 5

6 sheffield poverty update spring 2017 food poverty theology Come and join in a conversation in-the-round about our experiences of food poverty in Sheffield. Event details Thursday 4 May :00pm to 7.30pm Council Chamber, Octagon Centre, University of Sheffield Book your free ticket at Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield is organising this event in partnership with Liberating Theologies and the Urban Theology Union. The event is for any grappling with food poverty personally, or helping with meals, food bank or food recycling schemes. It will be relevant for those wondering about the theology of helping by handing out, or wanting church to be a place that gives a hand-up. The event will include input from Chris Allen from Liverpool, and from Sheffield perspectives including Church Action on Poverty, the Urban Theology Union, and the Liberating Theologies group. For any interested in doing some prior reading, there are links to pieces by Chris Allen and Julia Unwin at SHEFFIELD It's what we think we are doing, with God, in the churches; when we show and experience support and empowerment, with food, as part of individual experiences of poverty Jeremy Clines, Anglican chaplain at the University of Sheffield

7 7 radical christianity and politics We are delighted to invite you to the 2017 Annual General Meeting of Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield. Our keynote talk on 'Radical Christianity and Politics' will be given by Revd Chris Howson. Chris was a social worker before he was ordained to the Anglican Church. After ordination, he spent 10 years in Bradford, mostly as the City Centre Priest, working on fresh expressions of church inspired by Liberation Theology. He now lives and works in Sunderland, where he is chaplain to the university and works heavily with refugees and people seeking asylum. In 2011, he produced the book A Just Church: 21st Century Liberation Theology in Action. Event details Monday 8 May :00pm to 9:00pm (coffee and tea available from 6:30pm) Quaker Meeting House, St James St, Sheffield S1 2EW Chris Howson leading worship at a protest in 2013

8 sheffield poverty update spring 2017 membership Annual subscription fees Individual 5 Small organisation or church 10 Large organisation or church 25 Annual memberships are due from 1 April Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield Please send membership payments and enquiries to our treasurer: Father Shaun Smith sacredheart479@gmail.com Sacred Heart Presbytery 479 Langsett Road Sheffield S6 2LN